Research on multilingualism in mathematics education in South Africa: 2000–2007

Abstract

This paper presents a critical review of research on multilingualism in mathematics education in South Africa in the years 2000–2007. To do this review we selected key peer reviewed local and international mathematics education journals as well as key mathematics education conference proceedings in which South African mathematics education research had been published for the period 2000 to 2007. Through this review we argue that while all research in the area of study identifies language as the major determinant of success in mathematics learning and comparative assessment, large-scale and small-scale studies follow disconnected paths and thus seem to be making contradictory recommendations. Large scale research argues that improving the learners' fluency in English is critical to improving learner achievement in mathematics while small scale research argues for ways of using the learners' home languages as a resource for learning. We highlight the paucity of research in this important area of study and propose areas of study for future research.